Lingua Florum
by YaoiLord
Summary: Flowers are a common theme with Sirius recently.


unbeta-ed. Flower meanings directly from Google. Fic kind of resembles _**Amortis**_ _**Lingua**_ but in Remus's POV and is cheesier.

* * *

"Here, Remus."

Remus pried his eyes away from his book, looking up to find Sirius's arm absently extended to his direction. Sirius himself has his nose buried on a small spell book he found at a nook in the library.

"Is this… a flower?"

Sirius finally looked at him, somewhat sheepish. "Uh, yeah, I messed up on this particular spell." He waved his book. "According to the book, I'm supposed to create small bells."

Remus didn't want to comment that it was a huge leap from small bells to a… lily of the valley? "Ah." He felt the stem with his fingers. "But you end up making this instead." He inspected the plant closer, catching a whiff of sweet smell. "This is lily of the valley, I think."

He noticed Sirius watching him oddly, like he was waiting for something. "It's actually an impressive mistake," Remus added with a smile. "Still a good work, Sirius."

Sirius grinned at the praise. "Really?" He stood up, putting the spell book inside his bag. "Keep it. I'll try to make some more and give them to you."

Remus wanted to point out that you don't usually give flowers to friends, unless they were ill and in the hospital, but Sirius already ran away to find James.

He kept it anyway, tucked between the pages of his worn textbook.

The white petals shaped like bells were beautiful.

* * *

Remus was with a female Ravenclaw when flowers made their appearance again.

He was helping her carry her books; she seemed to be carrying a lot whenever he saw her. Remus only recognized her by her face, due to frequently seeing her around the library, but he knew she was a year below him.

She was grateful for the aid, and Remus was glad to be a gentleman. They were on their way to her Transfiguration class, sharing a small talk, when suddenly there was a loud _Bang._

Next thing Remus knew, yellow flowers were raining on them.

They smelled too strong to his liking, almost irritating his sensitive nose. At the corner of his eyes, he thought he saw Sirius, James, and Peter lurking around the bend.

Remus rolled his eyes at their antics. Typical of them to shower him and his female companion petals that were, fortunately, not red roses. They were hyacinths… maybe.

He approached them once he handed back the books to her and politely excused himself. They didn't bother to hide from him, not moving from their initial position, waiting for Remus to come to them.

Remus stared at them flatly, and noted, with a sigh, that James and Peter had the gall to snigger at him up front.

Sirius, though, avoided his gaze.

"That's not funny," Remus said, removing a single yellow petal from his hair. At closer look, the color was actually sickly yellow.

"Of course it is!" James said indignantly. "It's a teaser of our upcoming prank, only with spiders." He cackled maniacally. "Slytherins better watch their asses."

"Should I be glad that you didn't go for spiders on me?"

"That was the plan though," James said, shrugging. "Sirius was the one to decide what to shower on you two." He nudged Sirius on the side. "Oi, mate, what happened to the spiders?"

Remus turned to Sirius questioningly, but to his surprise, the latter scowled at him and was ignoring James.

"Well, I don't know, maybe I just sucked at conjuration or something," Sirius snapped, though he wasn't looking at James. "Why don't you ask Remus? I'm sure he knows _Ravenclaws_ are good at that sort of thing."

James and Peter gaped at Sirius's sudden outburst.

Startled, Remus could only blink as Sirius pushed past them and marched off.

...

Remus was readying for an early sleep when Sirius flopped down to his bed.

They quietly locked gazes, and Remus didn't dare speak; he wasn't sure if Sirius was still angry (for whatever reasons he couldn't comprehend), but there had to be a reason for earlier, because Sirius Black never walked away from his failures and would determinedly continue until he perfected what he put his mind on.

"Remus," Sirius spoke first, breaking the eye contact.

"Sirius."

Sirius pulled out his wand. On his other hand was a fistful of the yellow hyacinths he made this morning. He tapped his wand on them. Curiously, Remus wondered if he could transfigure them to something else.

Sirius could only change their colors to purple.

Frustrated, Sirius's handsome features were marred with a furious frown. Remus sat beside him when Sirius began crumpling the delicate flowers.

"It's okay," Remus said gently, smiling. He gingerly opened Sirius's tightly closed fist. "They're beautiful. And the color is definitely an improvement from the previous."

He cleared his throat and pulled his wand under the pillow. He murmured something before the flowers arranged themselves into a crown of sorts. "See? Pretty when arranged."

Sirius idly fingered the crown of hyacinths. Without a word, he placed it on top of Remus's unsuspecting head, breaking into a childish grin. "It suits you."

Remus didn't have the heart to tell him that flower crowns were for girls, not when Sirius was looking at him fondly and smiling at him brightly like the sun lit up his face.

* * *

Remus watched in amusement as James and Sirius moved from one stand to another.

He was simply trailing along the duo, minding his own business of looking around since Peter was absent and was most likely off in a corner snogging his girlfriend. It was St. Valentine's Day, and James was on his journey to find the perfect bouquet for Lily. Remus wondered if that was necessary when they were wizards themselves who could make their own out of the blue.

But this was James he was talking about. If it concerned Lily, it had to be perfect.

Even if he was yet to have a proper conversation with her without Lily calling him an _arrogant_ _toerag_.

Sirius, meanwhile, was just there for the fun of it. Of course he was aware of the girls who spotted him, mistaking Sirius to be on the same matters as James, and were whispering amongst themselves whether the lucky lady might be from them.

Remus suppressed the urge to roll his eyes at their giggling. Last time he checked, Sirius wasn't dating anybody from them recently.

Actually, now that Remus thought about it, Sirius wasn't dating _anybody_ recently.

"You okay?" Sirius asked, his eyebrow raised. Remus didn't notice him getting closer.

"I'm fine." He nodded at the direction of the girls. "You know, I think they're following us."

Sirius sent them a brief impassive glance. "Don't mind them."

"Well, can't blame them. They're hoping you'll be giving at least one of them something for Valentines. And you're in a flower shop, with James, so…"

Sirius merely grunted. He looked around to find James. "Oi, James, get some red chrysanthemum, orchids, and spider flowers, and be done with it," Sirius called at the bespectacled teen. James obediently searched the shop for them, seeing the shopkeeper was occupied with a number of customers.

Remus looked at Sirius suspiciously. Sirius lifted his open palms in mock surrender. "They _are_ a legitimately good combination _._ "

"Oh? What do they mean then?"

"Red chrysanthemum is a symbol of love; kinda like red roses," Sirius explained. "The spider flower… well, it means 'elope with me'."

"Sirius!" Remus exclaimed. He could only imagine how Lily would react later. "And the orchid?"

"Love; beauty; refinement," Sirius said, albeit unconvincingly. He elaborated with a sigh after seeing Remus's expression, "Okay, orchid might also be a Chinese symbol for many children."

"He'll be giving her a very suggestive bouquet!"

"Hey! It's not like she knows what they mean," Sirius argued.

"It's Lily. Her name is a flower. She would know," Remus insisted. He eyed an excited James pityingly from the other side of the shop, on queue at the cashier. Nothing to do about it now but brace for the impact of Lily's wrath. "You know a great deal about flowers," he observed.

"Read some," Sirius murmured. "I've been accidentally making different kinds of them recently." Remus remembered the lily of the valley he still kept in his book, and the unexpected shower of hyacinths. "So I said, 'what the heck', then I did a little research. Might come in handy in the future."

It _would_ be handy. Additional points to Sirius for being a romantic, as Remus could imagine Sirius flirting with a girl using language of flowers and his strange penchant for unconsciously summoning some.

Remus found out that he didn't like that picture one bit.

"I'm sure it—" Remus sneezed. "Damn."

Sirius looked amused. "Allergic?"

"Not really. Just surrounded by many, that's all." His nose felt runny, and there was surely another sneeze to follow when Sirius pulled him outside the establishment.

Remus breathed in. He could detect pollens in the air, but it was something that couldn't be helped.

"Thanks," he said.

"Sorry. Forgot about _that._ " _The werewolf_ , Remus mentally supplied.

"It's alright." He waved dismissively. "I think you should go back to James. Unchecked, he might buy everything inside."

Sirius laughed. "He will, won't he?"

Remus swore that laugh tugged pleasantly at his chest. "And he'll need your expertise," he said dryly.

"Will you be alright here?"

"I'm not a child, Sirius." He smiled, assuring. "I think I can return on my own."

Feeling Sirius's eyes on his back, Remus didn't look back on his way to Hogwarts.

…

By dinner, sitting between a glum James and a happy Peter was Remus eating his chocolate pudding.

James had been in the same mood since the late afternoon, when Lily smacked the bouquet back to his goofy face. Sirius was unrepentantly laughing his ass off while watching the exchange, earning him a hex from Lily herself, while James was too distraught at the rejection to care.

"More pudding, Moony?" Sirius nudged his own pudding at Remus.

"Please."

"So, uh," Sirius began when James walked sluggishly back to the dorms. "James bought too much flowers."

"Aren't we going to follow him?" Peter butted in.

"We'll be right after you, Wormtail," Sirius said, almost shooing Peter.

"Peter's right, you know? Never seen James that upset," Remus told him, watching Peter hurrying after James.

Sirius snorted. "He'll get over it. Next morning, he would be whacking me with his broomstick for a practice."

He did have a point, and between him and Remus, Sirius knew James more.

"As I was saying… Jamesie bought too much flowers."

"And?"

"I have some of them with me at the moment."

Remus stared at him. "Oh." He grinned wryly. "Enough for you to give at least one to all your fans?"

Sirius scoffed, muttering under his breath that Remus couldn't catch.

"Sorry. I didn't hear that."

Sirius pulled a bouquet from under his robes. One has to wonder how it could have fitted in. "I arranged some of them." He handed it to Remus.

It consisted of three types of tulips—yellow, red, and the type with varying colors of white, red, and yellow; there were also lilac irises, clustered around the small flowers of pink and violet with white edges. Surrounding the whole arrangement were white and yellow daffodils neatly tucked.

"Do you like it?" Sirius asked, silently anticipating Remus's answer.

Remus didn't disappoint him. "Don't worry, Sirius, I think she'll like this very much." Whoever the lucky recipient was. Remus finally has an idea where the dull ache inside him was coming from. "Personally, I like it. At least we now know that you have a future with flower arrangement when being a wizard won't turn out well."

Sirius didn't make a move to take the bouquet back. Instead, he leaned at Remus's space, and Remus could only do so much as to not burst red and give everything away. "You know irises. _Your friendship means so much to me_ , my reference said." He pointed at those white edges. "Those are gloxinia. It means… love at first sight."

Gray eyes met Remus intensely until they faltered, looking back at the bouquet.

Remus wetted his bottom lip. "The tulips?"

"Variegated tulip means 'beautiful eyes'. Yellow means 'there's sunshine in your smile'. Red means a declaration of love. Believe me."

"I do believe you're telling me the true meanings."

Sirius gave a lopsided grin. "It's the meaning of red tulips. _Believe me, I love you._ "

"With this, they'll believe you." Because, Merlin, Sirius Black never gave gifts or flowers to any of his past girlfriends. The person he would give the flowers must be very special to be the first to receive such. It would explain Sirius's abstinence to the remaining female population lately.

Remus was tempted to laugh hollowly at the way he was tearing himself apart.

"You think so? I mean, they already thought it's for somebody else," Sirius mused aloud. "I wouldn't have needed the daffodils, if ever."

"What do they signify?"

"Unrequited love," Sirius whispered.

"Oh." Remus was conflicted. "I'm sorry."

Sirius smiled wryly. "It's not like I can force you to have feelings for me, right?" He stood, bearing the shadow of James's current disposition. "Keep it. It's yours to begin with."

Sirius's words were akin to being rudely doused with a cold bucket of water at the face when everything sank in to him.

At Sirius's retreating back, Remus swore loudly and colorfully, much to his housemates' surprise.

* * *

Remus was asleep—it was a miracle that he could sleep that night—when Sirius came back. And when Remus woke up the next day, Sirius was gone early, a concept once thought impossible.

It took him exactly forty-three hours to approach Sirius properly. They both had been skirting around each other, indirectly talking through James and Peter, and were completely ignoring each other's presence when it was just the two of them in the same room.

It was awkward as hell.

"Sirius?" Remus called when he found Sirius alone at the Astronomy Tower, once he finally mustered enough courage.

Remus saw Sirius froze briefly until he settled to his usual casual stance. "Hello, Remus," he said without prying his eyes from gazing at the stars. There was a clear sky tonight.

 _Are you avoiding me? I miss you._ Remus went beside him mutely. There was a comfortable silence between them, and Remus would rather exist within it, if not for the fact that he has a lot to say.

Taken by a bout of confidence, Remus lifted a finger to brush a lock of silky hair away from Sirius's face. Remus could count all the bright stars and constellations that night, but there was only one he wanted to look at. And to him, it shone the brightest of all, right there beside him.

A jonquil bloomed between Remus's fingers, which he tucked behind Sirius's ear.

"I don't claim to be as knowledgeable as you, but a little research told me jonquils mean—"

"Affection returned," Sirius finished for him, wide-eyed. "Do you really?"

"I always have, and always will be."

Remus didn't have the time to dwell on how bold his declaration was when Sirius's lips found his, and it was as if fireworks were exploding and all that cliché since there was no other explanation for their kiss except acknowledging that he very much wanted to do it again with Sirius and nobody else.

When he realized that their beginning was just as cliché as those Muggle movies, Remus found that he couldn't care less.

Though they could make do without the dandelions currently dancing in the evening breeze around them, but whatever.

Thank Merlin for those accidental flowers.

 _ **end**_

* * *

in order:

Lily of the valley – You've made my life complete

Yellow hyacinth – Jealousy

Purple hyacinth – I'm sorry

Dandelion – Happiness; faithfulness

Others mean exactly what Sirius and Remus said.


End file.
